Method and apparatus for providing charging state alerts

ABSTRACT

A computer implemented method includes determining whether a time of day corresponds to a charging window, responsive to a determination that a vehicle is in a non-charging state. The method also includes retrieving a start time and charge requirement for an upcoming journey. The method further includes determining if sufficient time remains to charge a vehicle to the charge requirement, responsive to a determination that the time of day corresponds to the charging window. Also, the method includes alerting a user to the non-charging state, responsive to a determination that insufficient time remains to charge the vehicle to the charge requirement.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The illustrative embodiments relate to methods and apparatuses forproviding charging state alerts.

BACKGROUND

While battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and hybrid electric vehicles(HEVs) have increased in popularity over the years, the length of thetime to charge these vehicles can still produce situations of anxietyfor owners. For example, a plug-in BEV or HEV that an owner could pluginto an outlet in their garage may take over an hour to chargeappropriately for the next days travel, as compared to, for example, afew minutes worth of a stop at a local gas station for refueling agasoline powered vehicle.

Typically, these time constraints will not cause a problem, and may evenbe more convenient, since they can apply while a user is comfortablywithin a house, or even sleeping in bed. While the charging can usuallyoccur during such times, the fact that the user is not actually presentat the vehicle, to confirm that charge is being added, can result inseveral potential problems.

In one instance, incidental contact with a power cord can cause avehicle to become unplugged. This could be caused by, for example, a petor another person in the garage. Since the contact may be overlooked orunknown, the owner of the vehicle may not discover that the vehicle cameunplugged until attempting to start the vehicle the next day.

In another instance, a power outage may result in a no-charge state. Ifthe outage occurred while the owner was awake, at least the owner wouldhave some indication that the vehicle may not be charging (based on thefact that the house has no power). People, however, often becomeflustered during power outages, and it may not occur to an owner untilmuch later, or the next morning, that the power outage also resulted ina vehicle with no charge.

Additionally or alternatively, the power outage could occur while anowner was asleep. In such a case, the owner may not know about the poweroutage at all, until awakening to an uncharged vehicle.

SUMMARY

In a first illustrative embodiment, a computer implemented methodincludes determining whether a time of day corresponds to a chargingwindow, responsive to a determination that a vehicle is in anon-charging state. The illustrative method also includes retrieving astart time and charge requirement for an upcoming journey. The methodfurther includes determining if sufficient time remains to charge avehicle to the charge requirement, responsive to a determination thatthe time of day corresponds to the charging window. Also, the methodincludes alerting a user to the non-charging state, responsive to adetermination that insufficient time remains to charge the vehicle tothe charge requirement.

In a second illustrative embodiment, a machine readable storage mediumstores instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause theprocessor to perform the method including determining whether a time ofday corresponds to a charging window, responsive to a determination thata vehicle is in a non-charging state. The illustrative method alsoincludes retrieving a start time and charge requirement for an upcomingjourney. Further, the illustrative method includes determining ifsufficient time remains to charge a vehicle to the charge requirement,responsive to a determination that the time of day corresponds to thecharging window. The illustrative method also includes alerting a userto the non-charging state, responsive to a determination thatinsufficient time remains to charge the vehicle to the chargerequirement.

In a third illustrative embodiment, a system includes a processor, incommunication with a vehicle network, a local storage, in communicationwith the vehicle network, a vehicle power source, in communication withthe vehicle network, and a transceiver, in communication with at leastthe processor. In this illustrative example, the processor is configuredto determine whether a time of day corresponds to a charging window,responsive to a determination that a vehicle is in a non-charging state,based at least in part on information retrieved from the vehiclenetwork. The processor is further configured to retrieve a start timeand charge requirement for an upcoming journey from the local storage,and determine if sufficient time remains to charge a vehicle to thecharge requirement, responsive to a determination that the time of daycorresponds to the charging window, based at least in part on adifference between a current time and the start time, and at least inpart on an observed rate of charging. Also, the processor is configuredto alert a user to the non-charging state, responsive to a determinationthat insufficient time remains to charge the vehicle to the chargerequirement, utilizing at least the transceiver to send a message fortransmission to the user.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows an illustrative example of a vehicle computing system;

FIG. 2 shows an illustrative example of a charging alert process;

FIG. 3 shows a second illustrative example of a charging alert process;

FIG. 4A shows an illustrative example of a stop/power recording process;and

FIG. 4B shows an illustrative example of a stop/power usage predictionprocess.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

As required, detailed embodiments of the present invention are disclosedherein; however, it is to be understood that the disclosed embodimentsare merely exemplary of the invention that may be embodied in variousand alternative forms. The figures are not necessarily to scale; somefeatures may be exaggerated or minimized to show details of particularcomponents. Therefore, specific structural and functional detailsdisclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting, but merely as arepresentative basis for teaching one skilled in the art to variouslyemploy the present invention.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example block topology for a vehicle basedcomputing system 1 (VCS) for a vehicle 31. An example of such avehicle-based computing system 1 is the SYNC system manufactured by THEFORD MOTOR COMPANY. A vehicle enabled with a vehicle-based computingsystem may contain a visual front end interface 4 located in thevehicle. The user may also be able to interact with the interface if itis provided, for example, with a touch sensitive screen. In anotherillustrative embodiment, the interaction occurs through, button presses,spoken dialog system with automatic speech recognition and speechsynthesis.

In the illustrative embodiment 1 shown in FIG. 1, a processor 3 controlsat least some portion of the operation of the vehicle-based computingsystem. Provided within the vehicle, the processor allows onboardprocessing of commands and routines. Further, the processor is connectedto both non-persistent 5 and persistent storage 7. In this illustrativeembodiment, the non-persistent storage is random access memory (RAM) andthe persistent storage is a hard disk drive (HDD) or flash memory.

The processor is also provided with a number of different inputsallowing the user to interface with the processor. In this illustrativeembodiment, a microphone 29, an auxiliary input 25 (for input 33), a USBinput 23, a GPS input 24 and a BLUETOOTH input 15 are all provided. Aninput selector 51 is also provided, to allow a user to swap betweenvarious inputs. Input to both the microphone and the auxiliary connectoris converted from analog to digital by a converter 27 before beingpassed to the processor. Although not shown, numerous of the vehiclecomponents and auxiliary components in communication with the VCS mayuse a vehicle network (such as, but not limited to, a CAN bus) to passdata to and from the VCS (or components thereof).

Outputs to the system can include, but are not limited to, a visualdisplay 4 and a speaker 13 or stereo system output. The speaker isconnected to an amplifier 11 and receives its signal from the processor3 through a digital-to-analog converter 9. Output can also be made to aremote BLUETOOTH device such as PND 54 or a USB device such as vehiclenavigation device 60 along the bi-directional data streams shown at 19and 21 respectively.

In one illustrative embodiment, the system 1 uses the BLUETOOTHtransceiver 15 to communicate 17 with a user's nomadic device 53 (e.g.,cell phone, smart phone, PDA, or any other device having wireless remotenetwork connectivity). The nomadic device can then be used tocommunicate 59 with a network 61 outside the vehicle 31 through, forexample, communication 55 with a cellular tower 57. In some embodiments,tower 57 may be a WiFi access point.

Exemplary communication between the nomadic device and the BLUETOOTHtransceiver is represented by signal 14.

Pairing a nomadic device 53 and the BLUETOOTH transceiver 15 can beinstructed through a button 52 or similar input. Accordingly, the CPU isinstructed that the onboard BLUETOOTH transceiver will be paired with aBLUETOOTH transceiver in a nomadic device.

Data may be communicated between CPU 3 and network 61 utilizing, forexample, a data-plan, data over voice, or DTMF tones associated withnomadic device 53. Alternatively, it may be desirable to include anonboard modem 63 having antenna 18 in order to communicate 16 databetween CPU 3 and network 61 over the voice band. The nomadic device 53can then be used to communicate 59 with a network 61 outside the vehicle31 through, for example, communication 55 with a cellular tower 57. Insome embodiments, the modem 63 may establish communication 20 with thetower 57 for communicating with network 61. As a non-limiting example,modem 63 may be a USB cellular modem and communication 20 may becellular communication.

In one illustrative embodiment, the processor is provided with anoperating system including an API to communicate with modem applicationsoftware. The modem application software may access an embedded moduleor firmware on the BLUETOOTH transceiver to complete wirelesscommunication with a remote BLUETOOTH transceiver (such as that found ina nomadic device). Bluetooth is a subset of the IEEE 802 PAN (personalarea network) protocols. IEEE 802 LAN (local area network) protocolsinclude WiFi and have considerable cross-functionality with IEEE 802PAN. Both are suitable for wireless communication within a vehicle.Another communication means that can be used in this realm is free-spaceoptical communication (such as IrDA) and non-standardized consumer IRprotocols.

In another embodiment, nomadic device 53 includes a modem for voice bandor broadband data communication. In the data-over-voice embodiment, atechnique known as frequency division multiplexing may be implementedwhen the owner of the nomadic device can talk over the device while datais being transferred. At other times, when the owner is not using thedevice, the data transfer can use the whole bandwidth (300 Hz to 3.4 kHzin one example). While frequency division multiplexing may be common foranalog cellular communication between the vehicle and the internet, andis still used, it has been largely replaced by hybrids of Code DomainMultiple Access (CDMA), Time Domain Multiple Access (TDMA), Space-DomainMultiple Access (SDMA) for digital cellular communication. These are allITU IMT-2000 (3G) compliant standards and offer data rates up to 2 mbsfor stationary or walking users and 385 kbs for users in a movingvehicle. 3G standards are now being replaced by IMT-Advanced (4G) whichoffers 100 mbs for users in a vehicle and 1 gbs for stationary users. Ifthe user has a data-plan associated with the nomadic device, it ispossible that the data-plan allows for broad-band transmission and thesystem could use a much wider bandwidth (speeding up data transfer). Instill another embodiment, nomadic device 53 is replaced with a cellularcommunication device (not shown) that is installed to vehicle 31. In yetanother embodiment, the ND 53 may be a wireless local area network (LAN)device capable of communication over, for example (and withoutlimitation), an 802.11g network (i.e., WiFi) or a WiMax network.

In one embodiment, incoming data can be passed through the nomadicdevice via a data-over-voice or data-plan, through the onboard BLUETOOTHtransceiver and into the vehicle's internal processor 3. In the case ofcertain temporary data, for example, the data can be stored on the HDDor other storage media 7 until such time as the data is no longerneeded.

Additional sources that may interface with the vehicle include apersonal navigation device 54, having, for example, a USB connection 56and/or an antenna 58, a vehicle navigation device 60 having a USB 62 orother connection, an onboard GPS device 24, or remote navigation system(not shown) having connectivity to network 61. USB is one of a class ofserial networking protocols. IEEE 1394 (firewire), EIA (ElectronicsIndustry Association) serial protocols, IEEE 1284 (Centronics Port),S/PDIF (Sony/Philips Digital Interconnect Format) and USB-IF (USBImplementers Forum) form the backbone of the device-device serialstandards. Most of the protocols can be implemented for eitherelectrical or optical communication.

Further, the CPU could be in communication with a variety of otherauxiliary devices 65. These devices can be connected through a wireless67 or wired 69 connection. Auxiliary device 65 may include, but are notlimited to, personal media players, wireless health devices, portablecomputers, and the like.

Also, or alternatively, the CPU could be connected to a vehicle basedwireless router 73, using for example a WiFi 71 transceiver. This couldallow the CPU to connect to remote networks in range of the local router73.

In addition to having exemplary processes executed by a vehiclecomputing system located in a vehicle, in certain embodiments, theexemplary processes may be executed by a computing system incommunication with a vehicle computing system. Such a system mayinclude, but is not limited to, a wireless device (e.g., and withoutlimitation, a mobile phone) or a remote computing system (e.g., andwithout limitation, a server) connected through the wireless device.Collectively, such systems may be referred to as vehicle associatedcomputing systems (VACS). In certain embodiments particular componentsof the VACS may perform particular portions of a process depending onthe particular implementation of the system. By way of example and notlimitation, if a process has a step of sending or receiving informationwith a paired wireless device, then it is likely that the wirelessdevice is not performing the process, since the wireless device wouldnot “send and receive” information with itself. One of ordinary skill inthe art will understand when it is inappropriate to apply a particularVACS to a given solution. In all solutions, it is contemplated that atleast the vehicle computing system (VCS) located within the vehicleitself is capable of performing the exemplary processes.

Although modern electric vehicles may offer the convenience ofhome-charging, while a user is away from a vehicle, potential problemswith a power connection (e.g., without limitation, unplugging, outletfailure, power outage) can leave an owner unaware that a vehicle is notactually charging. The illustrative embodiments present some exemplaryaspects of the invention which can aid in notifying a user when a powerconnection has been interrupted.

While all embodiments are capable of near-constant or constantnotification, repeated and endless communication may annoy a user.Accordingly, it is understood that repetitive warnings can be truncatedafter a certain number of warnings (including a single warning) and thatbrief interruptions in the power supply can be accounted for in allcases. While optional, these considerations may prevent users from beingoverwhelmed with warnings, and may also allow brief power interruptionsto go unwarned, as they may generally tend not to greatly impact theoverall charge state.

FIG. 2 shows an illustrative example of a charging alert process. Inthis illustrative example, the process (which can be, for example, anon-board monitoring process, running off of the battery or a backuppower supply) first checks to see if a vehicle is currently charging201. In this example, if the vehicle is charging, then the process forreporting a charge interruption may not be needed. A delay (not shown)of some time period can be interspersed before checking charging again,or the process can simply continue to monitor charging continuouslyuntil a charging interruption registers.

If the vehicle charging ceases, the process may check a remaining amountof time needed to charge 203. In at least one implementation, theprocess may have a known vehicle start time (i.e., the time the nextday, or later the same day, the vehicle is needed) and a known neededcharge level. This information can be fully or partially input by auser, or it can be fully or partially determined based on observationsof a user's travel habits.

For example, in one instance, a user may note that on weekdays thevehicle is needed at approximately 7 AM, and that a 20-mile each wayround-trip journey is contemplated. Based on fuel economy statistics,and any other known information (weather, traffic, etc.) the process can“know” how much power is required to complete such a trip. Thisinformation can then be used to determine a minimum charge requirementfor trip completion, with a buffer built in if desired.

Based on a current charging rate, and known minimum charge, a total timeneeded to charge the vehicle to the minimum level can be determined 203.Additionally, the user may only wish to charge a vehicle during certainpower company “windows”. For example, power usage may be cheaper betweencertain hours, given a particular locale and power company guidelines.If the optimal pricing on usage is obtained from midnight to five AM,the user may only wish to charge during this window. Accordingly, inthis example, even if the vehicle is not charging, the process checks tosee if the time is within a charging window 205 before alerting the userof the charging interruption.

Also, in this example, the process determines whether sufficient time tocharge the vehicle remains 207. For example, if a user arrived home at 3AM and plugged in a vehicle, and needed the vehicle at 7 AM, four totalhours to charge the vehicle would remain. If charging were interruptedat 3:30 AM, and the full four hours were needed to charge the vehicle,the process may determine that insufficient total time to fully chargethe vehicle remains 207. In such a case, the process may alert a user209 that the vehicle will not be fully charged to a predicted sufficientlevel to complete the next day's journey. In this case, the user maycorrect any charging interruption process, and take action to achievethe remaining charge. This can include, but is not limited to, setting alater end point for a window and sleeping in, stopping for additionalpower on the way to/from the destination, etc.

If sufficient time remains, the process checks to see if a no-chargecondition is approaching a warning range. If a charging window was frommidnight to 7 AM, and power went out at 1 AM, but only three hours wasneeded to charge the vehicle, the 1 AM power outage does not necessarilypresent a sufficient problem at 1 AM worthy of alerting a user. But as 3or 4 AM approaches, if charging has not yet resumed, a problem couldarise. In this case, as a warning range (in this example, some suitableperiod of time wherein sufficient time remains to charge the vehicle asneeded still remains) is approached, the process may alert the user tothe continued no-charging state 213, so the user can take appropriateaction.

The configuration of the time range can be up to the user. Some usersmay want to be alerted any time charging is interrupted prior toreaching a needed charge, other users may only want to be alerted if acritical situation is imminent. The user can set conditions for warning,and can also configure a window prior to a critical point in whichwarnings should be sent. The particulars of these choices are allcontemplated to be within the scope of the invention.

FIG. 3 shows a second illustrative example of a charging alert process.In this illustrative example, the process again checks to see if thevehicle is charging 301. If the vehicle is not charging, the processdetermines if the time of day is within a designated charging window 303(assuming any window has been designated at all).

If the time of day is within the charging window, the process mayadditionally check to see if a suitable delay has passed since theno-charge state was detected 305. For example, it may not be desirableto notify a user for an interruption of only a few minutes in charging.In this embodiment, a delay (user or OEM defined, for example) can beset such that only delays in charging over a certain length result inuser notification. If the delay has not passed, the process continues tocheck to see if charging is on-going or has resumed.

Once a suitable delay has passed, the process determines if a departuretime is known 307. If the user has established or entered a departuretime, it may be specifically or generally known to the process. If thereis not a known departure time, the process may attempt to predict adeparture time 309. This can be done, for example, based on previouslyobserved behavior and will be discussed in greater detail with respectto FIGS. 4A and 4B.

One a departure time is known, the process can determine an amount oftime remaining prior to departure 311. The process can also check acurrent charge level 313, which may be additionally useful fordetermining if an alert should be sent to a user.

The process also checks to see if a particular required charge level isknown 315. Again, this could be based on user input data (trip duration,distance, etc.). If there is insufficient information to “know” theneeded charge, the process may attempt to predict a needed charge level317, again discussed in more detail below.

Once the departure time, time remaining and needed charge level havebeen analyzed (and/or guessed, as appropriate) the process may determineif it is even possible, in the time remaining, to achieve the neededcharge level 319. If it is not possible, the process may alert the ownerto the situation 321, and then resume charge monitoring. Since theprocess relies on the owner to rectify a no-charging situation, theresumption of monitoring can result in additional warnings, if needed,that can help the owner perform the needed corrections.

If there is sufficient total time remaining, but the process is not yetnearing a critical point 323 (e.g., if there is more than apredetermined amount of surplus time remaining), the process may simplycontinue monitoring. Once there is less than the predetermined amount ofsurplus time remaining 323, the process may alert the owner that acritical window is approaching 325, so that the owner can takeappropriate steps to rectify any problems.

FIG. 4A shows an illustrative example of a stop/power recording process.This is just one example of how data can be recorded, to aid in futurepower need/time need evaluations, and it shows how a predictive processcan be implemented with little overhead. Other predictive processes mayalso be used, as desired by one implementing the warning system.

In this illustrative example, the process detects that a vehicle enginehas been started 401. Generally, this will correspond to the start of atrip, and a time of day and day of week are recorded 403. The recordingof this information can be done so that predictions can be made forsimilar days of the week in following weeks, since many people follow asomewhat common schedule in terms of vehicle usage.

Also, a current power level is recorded 405. This can be used when apark state is detected to determine how much power was used during thecourse of a journey. In addition to the above information, a vehiclelocation is recorded 407. In this example, the vehicle location is alsouseful in predicting vehicle usage needs, since time and power needs aremost likely to be common when the vehicle is departing from a commonlocation. In other words, if the user lives in Michigan and the vehicleis parked in Ohio, then it is likely that the next day's journey willnot be the typical journey for that day of the week (since the user islikely on a trip of some sort).

The process then continues to check whether or not the vehicle hasentered a “park” state 409. A park state is used here as a proxy forstop detection, although other suitable determinations correlating to ajourney end point may also be used. Also, in at least one embodiment,the process may require that the vehicle remain in the park state forsome period of time, to ensure that more than a mere temporary stop isbeing made (e.g., fuel, food, etc.).

Once the process has determined that the vehicle has reached adestination, through an appropriate mechanism, the process may proceedto record the location of the destination 411 and an amount of powerused to reach the destination 413. Recorded power usage can be laterused to predict needed power to reach a destination. Recordeddestination location can be later used to predict if a change inweather/traffic/etc. will require increased/decreased power to reach thedestination. The destination can also, on a day by day basis, forexample, be compared to other destinations to which the user travels onthe same day of the week, to determine commonality of a certaindestination, thus providing statistical likelihood of traveling to thatdestination.

FIG. 4B shows an illustrative example of a stop/power usage predictionprocess. In this illustrative example, a warning process may utilize thepresent process to help guess where a vehicle is headed, when a vehicleis needed, and how much power will be needed by the vehicle to reach thepredicted destination.

The process first accesses a stored profile for one or more drivers ofthe vehicle 421. Which profile(s) is/are selected may depend on how manydrivers a vehicle has, how frequently each driver uses the vehicle, etc.The process then determines if a current day of week matches any storeddays of the week 423. For example, if today (or tomorrow morning,depending on the time) is Tuesday, the process will check to see if datahas been stored for previous Tuesdays.

If there is data stored for similar days from previous weeks, theprocess may check to see if a significant non-earliest time exists 425.By significant non-earliest time, this example refers to a time, laterthan the earliest recorded usage time, that occurs a statisticallysignificant number of times. For example, if a user typically goes towork at 8 AM, but one day left at 6 AM, then the earliest recorded datamay be 6 AM, but the 8 AM departures would accumulate as beingstatistically significant. This check is made, in this example, becausein the absence of such a time, the process will select the earliestknown time 427, in an attempt to ensure that the user's vehicle will besuitably charged at the earliest likely moment of need.

Additionally, a buffer zone may be built in around recorded times, suchthat times within, for example, fifteen minutes of each other are alltreated as a median time (or other suitable approximation). If there isa significant time, other than the earliest time, the process may selectthat time for use 429. Regardless of which time is selected, the processproceeds to retrieve an associated power requirement, saved with respectto that time 431.

Since, in this portion of this example, at least some data has beenpreviously observed and recorded, the process can guess, even roughly,an approximation of how much power will be needed. If only one or twodata points exist, the guess may have a higher likelihood of beingincorrect, but if sufficient data points exist then the guess may becloser to an accurate one based on previously observed behavior.

If there is no data that matches the current day of the week 423, theprocess may determine whether or not the relevant day is a weekday 433.Since the majority of the population works on weekdays, the process maymake some assumptions about usage until data can be recorded. If theprocess is implemented as soon as or soon after a vehicle is purchased,this “standard” data will only be needed on a short term basis.

If the day is a weekday, the process will select generic weekday data437, otherwise the process will select generic weekend data 435. Next,in this example, the process determines if there is any data at all fora weekend day or a weekday 439. For example, if a vehicle process wasfirst activated on a Wednesday, and it is the following Tuesday, therewill be no Wednesday data, but there will be some saved weekday data. Ifthere is weekday data, the process will use the closest day 441 (forexample, utilizing a Monday or Wednesday for a Tuesday) or any othersuitable combination of existing data. The process can then continue aspreviously described, substituting the data from the selected day(s) forthe data that is not yet recorded for the current day of the week.

If there is no data suitable to use as a proxy for the current day ofthe week, the process will use a “standard time” 443. This could be, forexample 7:30 AM, or any other suitable time likely to cover asignificant portion of users, without creating situations likely toannoy too many users. For example, if 5 AM was selected, it wouldprobably ensure a higher percentage of user coverage, but it may alsoensure a much higher percentage of false positives on the chargingresults (i.e., vehicles that would be charged when they're actuallyneeded, may not be charged by 5 AM). Based on a particularimplementation's needs, the give and take between the two constraints(and any other constraints) can be considered and adjustments can bemade accordingly.

Once the process has selected a departure time, it may also guess at astandard power need. In one example, this could always be “full,” butagain, a full power cell may be more than most people need and mayresult in many false positives. The manufacturer or other implementer ofthe process can determine a suitable compromise likely to result in adesired number of false positives while at the same time still maintainsufficient coverage for a desired number of customers.

While exemplary embodiments are described above, it is not intended thatthese embodiments describe all possible forms of the invention. Rather,the words used in the specification are words of description rather thanlimitation, and it is understood that various changes may be madewithout departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.Additionally, the features of various implementing embodiments may becombined to form further embodiments of the invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer implemented process comprising:determining whether a time of day corresponds to a charging window,responsive to a determination that a vehicle is in a non-charging state;retrieving a start time and charge requirement for an upcoming journey;determining if sufficient time remains to charge a vehicle to the chargerequirement, responsive to a determination that the time of daycorresponds to the charging window; alerting a user to the non-chargingstate, responsive to a determination that insufficient time remains tocharge the vehicle to the charge requirement; and alerting a user that acharge requirement cannot be met, responsive to a determination that apoint in time past which a charge requirement cannot be met was prior toor is within a threshold range of a current time.
 2. The method of claim1, wherein the alerting the user further includes waiting until apredetermined period of non-charging time has passed, following thedetermination that the vehicle is in the non-charging state, prior toalerting the user of the non-charging condition.
 3. The method of claim2, wherein, if the predetermined period of non-charging time does notpass in an uninterrupted block of the vehicle remaining in thenon-charging state, an instance of the alerting is cancelled.
 4. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the alerting is further responsive to adetermination that a vehicle is not currently charged to or above thecharge requirement.
 5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:approximating a start time based on observed previous behavior, if anattempt to retrieve a start time is unsuccessful.
 6. The method of claim1, further comprising: approximating a charge requirement based onobserved previous behavior, if an attempt to retrieve a chargerequirement is unsuccessful.
 7. A non-transitory machine readablestorage medium, storing instructions which, when executed by aprocessor, cause the processor to perform the method comprising:determining whether a time of day corresponds to a charging window,responsive to a determination that a vehicle is in a non-charging state;retrieving a start time and charge requirement for an upcoming journey;determining if sufficient time remains to charge a vehicle to the chargerequirement, responsive to a determination that the time of daycorresponds to the charging window; alerting a user to the non-chargingstate, responsive to a determination that insufficient time remains tocharge the vehicle to the charge requirement; and alerting a user that acharge requirement cannot be met, responsive to a determination that apoint in time past which a charge requirement cannot be met was prior toor is within a threshold range of a current time.
 8. The machinereadable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the alerting the userfurther includes waiting until a predetermined period of non-chargingtime has passed, following the determination that the vehicle is in thenon-charging state, prior to alerting the user of the non-chargingcondition.
 9. The machine readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein,if the predetermined period of non-charging time does not pass in anuninterrupted block of the vehicle remaining in the non-charging state,an instance of the alerting is cancelled.
 10. The machine readablestorage medium of claim 7, wherein the alerting is further responsive toa determination that a vehicle is not currently charged to or above thecharge requirement.
 11. The machine readable storage medium of claim 7,further comprising: approximating a start time based on observedprevious behavior, if an attempt to retrieve a start time isunsuccessful.
 12. The machine readable storage medium of claim 7,further comprising: approximating a charge requirement based on observedprevious behavior, if an attempt to retrieve a charge requirement isunsuccessful.
 13. A system comprising: a processor, in communicationwith a vehicle network; a local storage, in communication with thevehicle network; a vehicle power source, in communication with thevehicle network; and a transceiver, in communication with at least theprocessor, wherein the processor is configured to determine whether atime of day corresponds to a charging window, responsive to adetermination that a vehicle is in a non-charging state, based at leastin part on information retrieved from the vehicle network, retrieve astart time and charge requirement for an upcoming journey from the localstorage, determine if sufficient time remains to charge a vehicle to thecharge requirement, responsive to a determination that the time of daycorresponds to the charging window, based at least in part on adifference between a current time and the start time, and at least inpart on an observed rate of charging, alert a user to the non-chargingstate, responsive to a determination that insufficient time remains tocharge the vehicle to the charge requirement, utilizing at least thetransceiver to send a message for transmission to the user; and alert auser that a charge requirement cannot be met, responsive to adetermination that a point in time past which a charge requirementcannot be met was prior to or is within a threshold range of a currenttime.
 14. The system of claim 13, wherein the processor alerting theuser further includes waiting until a predetermined period ofnon-charging time has passed, following the determination that thevehicle is in the non-charging state, prior to alerting the user of thenon-charging condition.
 15. The system of claim 14, wherein, if thepredetermined period of non-charging time does not pass in anuninterrupted block of the vehicle remaining in the non-charging state,an instance of the processor alerting the user is cancelled.
 16. Thesystem of claim 13, wherein the processor alerting the user is furtherresponsive to a determination that a vehicle is not currently charged toor above the charge requirement.
 17. The system of claim 13, wherein theprocessor is further configured to approximate a start time based onobserved previous behavior, if an attempt to retrieve a start time isunsuccessful.